Are We Out Of The Woods
by Cryellow
Summary: What happens if one of the two demigods never leave Tartarus? How will this end! Set in HoH. One-shot AU


_**Are We Out Of The Woods- Content warning. Dark themes.**_

 _ **Note to all**_ : I do not own the Percy Jackson universe. None of the characters are mine. All rights reserved to Rick Riordan. I do not make any money in this. It is purely my own enjoyment. I have a direct quote from Riordan in my fanfiction. _IT is not mine. I did not write said section. However, the section in question is excellent for this story in particular._

 _ **Warnings**_ : Graphic content, blood, pain, inner turmoil, dark themes, death, loss

 _ **Summary**_ : Percy and Annabeth have fallen into Tartarus. Both end up at the mercy of a titan and a giant. But what happens if one of them doesn't make it out?

 ** _Pairings_** **:** Percy/Annabeth, Percy/Nico (One sided)

 ** _Author's note:_** Hey so I usually don't do one- shots. Not really my type of thing but it kinda came to me. Please don't read if you are suffering through a loss. Don't make yourself sad :c I use the same happenings from HoH but into a different timeline. It's more or less a parallel universe. Fav and review and all that good stuff ~Cryellow

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Percy POV

Percy knew how this would end the moment he had seen Bob bounding up to him. He had this sort of sinking in his gut, unlike anything he'd ever felt. He thought it was just the Tartarus air, getting to him under the Death Mist. That's what Percy would end up blaming it on, regardless of the fact his instincts were usually right.

Good monsters can see them. That's a "good" sign. Sure.

After walking with Bob and Annabeth passed the Titan Koios the sinking in his gut had got bigger.

That was before they approached the doors. They were contemplating the problem in front of them, and Bob the Titan said he'd like to see the stars.

The cement settled in Percy's stomach. He had suspected how this would end. He would have to stay behind. While Bob fended off the army, Percy would hold the elevator button and make sure Annabeth got to safety.

Somehow, he had to convince her to go without him. As long as she was safe and the Doors disappeared, he could die knowing he'd done something right. While he was trying to come up with some sort of plan, Annabeth kept looking at him with knowing eyes.

He knew she was too stubborn to admit it, but the Fates sent two demigods down on purpose. Just how, Nico di Angelo got out alone, so should the daughter of Athena. Admittedly neither of them would have made it ten feet into the place without the other, but getting out was the goal right now.

They had got to the Doors and Tartarus had showed up. That was truly the time Percy had realized Ares' curse. The time he most needed a sword, and he dropped it, gaping at the eternal void with his jaw open like a cartoon. He silently prayed to his dad, and any other Olympian god up there listening, that someone had to smack Ares in the face. It was no time to be petty, he was in the pit of damnation after all! Suddenly there was the screaming, the war cries, and Damascus the Giant on a huge drakon.

Percy hadn't really been conscious for the whole story time with a giant thing, but he still couldn't bare the sight of anyone up against this roiling beast. A single tear slipped past his cheek onto the floor as he knew what would happen. He prayed to the gods once more, begging them to give Annabeth his strength. All of it, after this.

Bob turned to them as the horde came, yelling at them to go to the doors.

Annabeth said her goodbye to the Titan, telling him how their children will remember him and Damascus.

With a sudden blur Percy ran through every person who had died- died for him and Annabeth and the gods. Luke. Ethan Nakamura. Silena. Beckendorf. Zoe. Bianca. Pan. The list went on and on in his head. The demigods and hunters lost in the Titan war. The friends and the families. The lone Dionysus child with the wine colored cloth offering.

Percy agreed with certainty. _Her_ children with remember them. He couldn't let anyone else die for him. He bowed his head a little, got his stance ever so slightly as to not make Annabeth notice. Then the doors where closing fast when Percy jumped out and landed his fastest and hardest kick possible. He aimed it right at Bob's chest, pushing him backward into the elevator and Percy slammed a full grown Riptide into the button. He had figured that it would work like a finger and he was right. As the last sliver of Annabeth and the Titan were seen, shocked, scared, and angry, Percy looked at them dead in the eyes.

"I'm sorry. I love you Wise Girl." He heard her shriek as the doors closed completely. He turned around and faced the horde. Twelve minutes was all he needed. Twelve minutes was what he was going to get. He shouted and every single vain in the area popped and flooded monsters. The ones he had popped before had popped again. The very murky, yet still there, water in the air became heavy as Percy charged every bit of his emotion into it.

They were so affected by the atmosphere that they neglected to move. Some where walking around confused. Some where trying to claw at their heads. 6 minutes left. He had reached to get Riptide from his pocket, but remembered that he had jammed it into the elevator. Small Bob was pacing around it, daring anyone to come near it. Percy picked up a stray sword, which looked pretty wicked with diamonds and Celestial Bronze, and cut down a whole line of monsters. He gave in to the power, the very essence of how powerful the ocean could be. Yes it can be the ocean of calm breezes and lazy rivers, but it could also kill sea dwellers with one foul swoop. It could capsize a ship and not blink an eye. It could rage on and not feel anything, continuing on like it has for centuries. Percy gave in.

He fought like mad, and he realized that Small Bob was too. He was a whirlwind of claws and angry hisses. Nothing had touched the doors. They remained in place, Riptide on the button. It gave a small ding, and with a _pop_ , the Doors of Death disappeared from their clutches. Percy looked over to Damascus at the feet of Tartarus. He was dead. There was a drakon bone pierced though his heart. Percy looked for Small Bob in the fray, but instead only found a Cyclops holding up the pelt of a calico kitten.

Before a monster could grab him up, Tartarus gave a mighty yell. It was out of pain and frustration that Tartarus picked the petty son of the sea god, and chucked him down his gullet.

Percy was smiling. He had did it- he had saved Annabeth. He accepted his fate. He slipped a drachma from out of his pocket- for emergency Iris-messages- but this time it would be for Charon the boat traveler. He wondered if the Underworld security guard would remember him. He got one last good image- Annabeth. her hair a little frazzled and her eyes full of hope, looking at him after hopping off a giant trireme. He fell head first into the monster and felt nothing more.

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Annabeth Pov

She shrieked. She screamed, cried, yelled and banged on the doors. It did nothing. As the doors closed, Bob had reached to open them but they stayed closed.

"Let me out! Let me go, Bob Please! We can't leave him alone! We can't- we can't let him die!" She sobbed, her fists on the doors getting weaker the longer she was in the elevator.

But the Titan refused to open the doors, anyway. He held them shut with both his hands, understanding that Annabeth couldn't have done it in her state.

"P-Percy is keeping them closed. We have to honor his sacrifice. We have to make it out." Bob said with a wince.

"He didn't want to honor your sacrifice! He had to do it himself! Now he's- he's-he's gone!" She curled into a ball at the bottom of the elevator, her head on her knees and she sobbed without stopping. Her tears flowed endlessly. "I didn't even get to tell him goodbye."

"If we are still alive, then he is also," The Titan said, staring at the doors stonily.

"He promised me! He promised me we wouldn't be apart- never again, he said! He can't break that promise! Not now!" She was hysterical and sobbing, her breathes were getting slower as she realized they were reaching the surface- and getting farther from Percy.

As the doors where about to open, Bob whispered "It is done," and collapsed on the floor next to Annabeth.

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Brief Hecate POV

Hecate could feel the battle raging on in the House of Hades. She had felt Hazel Levesque's call to her power, pleading the goddess to manipulate the Mist to help her. Before she stepped into the battle, she had known the force in the elevator was not equal to that of two teenage demigods. There was only one.

She understood that the Giant Clytius was priority. Everything else came last. That included Hazel's emotions about her friends death. She would be weak and unable to defeat the giant in such a state. Lady Hecate cast a brief spell on everyone in the room-one of her extreme magic shielding spells, even before she had entered the room. The two figures that "dropped" to the ground in front of Clytius looked like Annabeth and Percy. Hazel gave a sigh of relief and fought the giant. Lady Hecate made sure it was a strong spell- strong enough to block the son of Hades' feeling for death. He could not know his friend was dead or else he too would be out of commission.

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Nico POV

When Nico entered the fray with Hazel he had an odd cold feeling on the back of his neck. He had been putting out feelers during the fight with the legionaires, hoping to feel it if any one of his friends- surprisingly that's what he called them- were seriously hurt or dead. When he entered the battle, the cold feeling settled on him, instead of the feeling of their warm auras. He decided that was a bad omen, until he looked at where Leo, Annabeth, and Percy were laying. His heart gave an involuntary stutter as he looked at Percy, and he fought with renewed vigor.

Hazel thanked Lady Hecate and together she and Nico transported everyone out.

Nico shook out his hands, still feeling Percy's with his own. He recovered the quickest from the shadow travel, having been doing it much longer than anyone present. That's the only reason Nico shouted in surprise jumping back almost a foot while looking at Bob in his tattered uniform.

The cold feeling fell off his neck like an ice cube melting down his spine. Then he felt it. He felt Percy's death. He screamed in agony and terror, clutching his head in his hands. He never wanted to be a child of Hades less. He struggled to keep the dead at bay, his powers finding their only outlet on his emotions.

The other demigods quickly came to their senses and realized that there was a Titan in their midst and that Nico di Angelo was crying uncontrollably. Bob woke up around this time, clutching his head with one hand, bending over to touch the ground with the other.

"Percy," Bob said aloud. Nico felt his body arch in pain after hearing the name. He felt Percy's pain one minute, and then complete silence and utter emptiness the next.

"No. I can't believe that," Nico said loudly, shouting at the Titan. He was dirty and tired, but he refused to believe it was so.

Annabeth came to with a jolt and the next thing anyone knew she was reduced to a sobbing mess. No one could calm her, no one could talk to her, and no one could make her stop. Nico fell the the ground, the sun high in the air, and pulled up massive clumps of grass.

"He was supposed to come back! _He was supposed to come back with you!"_ Nico screamed at Annabeth. She wrapped her arms around herself and sobbed harder.

"I-I brought them to the doors! I did what I promised!" Nico was trying to look at Bob once more. His heart was in a million pieces. He had tried to convince himself for so long that he was over Percy, yet here he was. A part of him had always been with the boy. It had been since the older demigod rescued him from his vice principal.

For a minute the other demigods were silent, realization slowly dawning on them what happened. They all originally had reached for some type of weapon to fight the Titan in front of them, but Bob didn't seem like he wanted to fight, and if Nico was talking to him like that then they could safely assume he probably knew him. Not to mention not one of the demigods could have fought well even if they tried.

"He was just here-," Piper said with her eyebrows drawn. "He came out with Annabeth..."

"It was Lady Hecate," murmured the gray haired Titan. "Percy- Percy didn't come with us."

"No," said Piper, covering her mouth as tears filled her eyes.

Frank threw up in the grass, while tears streamed down Hazel''s face. Jason hugged Piper to him- clinging onto her like a vice. Leo just looked dumbfounded and struck. With weakness, Bob told them the story of what happened at the heart of Tartarus.

"That utter _bastard_ ," to everyone's surprise it was Hazel who said it. "How _dare he."_

Everyone more or less felt the same. Nico continued to cry, laying in the grass, but it was dead in a circle around him. He still fought himself, struggling to make sure he didn't raise any useless skeletons. They couldn't fight for him, since there was nothing _to_ fight. They couldn't help him.

"Maybe he isn't dead," murmured Jason with a little hope. "You told us the time of when he escaped St. Helens and came back. Maybe...,"

Of course, they all took one look at Nico, and the hope died in their chests. For a while, every one of them gave up hope. Percy was a big part of the seven- even if he hadn't realized it. Bob looked with despair at Annabeth.

"I sent them into the doors. It had almost closed when Percy kicked me in," he clutched at his lower stomach region, maybe hoping to feel the kick again. "I didn't have the time to go after him. By then the doors had closed us in."

" _He can't be dead,_ " Annabeth screamed. "He's one of the seven! _We need him!"_

Her head was moving around, at one point it was looking at them, daring them to defy her. The next, it was pointed at the sky urgently. If she had been expecting anything, Nico knew she would be disappointed. He proved right when, as nothing moved or commented, she shrieked in anger. She shifted instead to look at the Titan.

"You should have closed them faster!" She said grabbing her hair. There were fresh tears in her eyes, spilling over with vigor. Bob looked back at her with sad eyes. She turned her head downward toward her knees in the grass instead. "I should have grabbed him! Anything! _I shouldn't have even let him come. I should be the one dead, not him!_ "

Nico had stopped crying- his body gave out. He couldn't produce any more. He went completely numb inside, feeling as bad as when Bianca died. _Everyone close to me dies,_ he said to himself. _I brought this on him._

"I should be the one dead! Go ahead, Hera! You know you've always wanted to! Well now's your chance!" Annabeth shouted to the heavens, clumps of her hair in her hands where she had ripped it out. The others watched her in horror and shock, as she cursed he queen of Olympus.

"Annabeth," Nico said, hoarse. All the ill will Nico had begged the daughter of Athena to go through, throughout the years, yet here he was scared for her. He had wished bad things for her because she took _him_ he couldn't let Annabeth die by Hera's hand. He also couldn't see her do this to herself.

" _What?!"_ She said whirling over to him. "And why are you crying?! You hated him! You blamed him for Bianca when that was my fault too! _I_ was the one who Artemis took the sky from! If I had never given it up, Bianca would never have needed to come after her! But you blamed Percy! You hated him so much that you even gave him over to your dad!"

Anger and pain broiled in his chest. "I loved him!" Nico yelled. "I loved him and he's gone!

Everyone except Annabeth shouted back as 5 skeletons popped out of the ground. He could control them no longer. She grinned as she stepped toward the beasts.

"Go ahead. Kill me. It's what both of us want. Then I can- then I can see him again."

Nico looked at her in horror and disgust- but also with a little understanding. She could see her pain, and could match it to some degree. In the end they both wanted one thing, and he was currently being judged by the Judges of the Underworld. Nico flicked his wrist and the monsters disintegrated.

Annabeth screamed in outrage. "Fine! If you wont kill me then I will find a monster who will! Or- or- or I'll get him from the Underworld myself! Orpheus did it! So can I! He is not dead!"

Every one of the demigods' cheeks were covered in tears. Nico looked over to his sister and saw he wasn't the only one looking. Frank and Hazel shared some silent understanding. Before Annabeth could try to enact her brilliant plan, Frank transformed into a grizzly bear and grabbed her. One paw was around her body and arms, the other was around her mouth. Annabeth's eyes turned shocked as she tried to fight the Roman. In this form, however, he was much too strong for her.

"Annabeth, please," whispered Hazel. "You can't do that. We have to fight the Giants and Gaea. We-we have to save Olympus. Percy, he'll reach Elysium. You can't take him from that. Now that the doors are sealed, returning him is almost impossible."

She turned her eyes over from Annabeth to Piper. Piper nodded her head, understanding.

"Annabeth, you look really tired. I bet you feel tired, huh?" Piper said, charmspeaking. It was filled with sadness and guilt.

Despite her stupid ideas, Nico noted that Annabeth had probably planned on this happening. She bit Frank Zhang on his bear paw. While he flinched away from her, Annabeth shoved dirt into her ears. Nico could tell it was painful because as she shoved it in she winced.

"I am doing this," she said a little too loudly cause of her makeshift earplugs. "I have to."

It was then that Hedge decided to sneak behind her, bat in hand, and looked directly at Nico. He nodded at the satyr, but Annabeth thought he was agreeing to her, and she relaxed. Hedge smacked her upside the head, and she knocked out into the dead grass.

Hedge jumped back and with a shocked look, glanced down at her. "I didn't kill her, did I?!"

"No," said Nico, loud enough for every one else to hear, so that they wont worry. "But we have to get her to the ship- tie her up or something. She's a danger to herself."

Everyone nodded and got on the ship, Frank carrying Annabeth on his back.

"What are we going to do?" Jason said with his hands on his head.

Nico got out the emergency Iris- message kit. He threw a coin in, hesitated and then said "O Iris, goddess of the rainbow. Show me the Olympian gods."

The connection shocked and electrified before solidifying into the front of the throne room. The gods were there, looking bored because of their imprisonment on Olympus.

"WHO DARES-" Zeus shouted at it.

"Nico di Angelo son of Hades, Lord Zeus. Percy Jackson is dead. We are all doomed."

 _ **With that cheery note I say leave a fav and review and see my other works Love ya! ~Cryellow**_


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